Internal combustion engines use fuel injectors to deliver fuel under pressure to one or more cylinders. Such fuel injectors utilize actuators which are operated by an engine control to deliver measured quantities of fuel to the cylinders, in synchronism with movement of pistons within the cylinders. The timing of fuel injection and the quantity of fuel injected during each injection operation affect the efficiency of the engine and the emissions therefrom. Further, it is required to sequence the injection of the fuel by each fuel injector for sustainable operation of the engine.
During operation of the engine, there may be a fault due to short-circuiting of the fuel injectors to ground or engine chassis. In fuel injection system, with the fuel injectors sharing connections, the short-circuiting of one of the fuel injectors may lead to unintended actuation of associated fuel injectors. This unintended injection may result in unwanted forces and lead to damage to engine's components.
US Patent Application No. 20080212246 discloses systems and methods for detecting a short in an electrical distribution system. A determination is made as to whether a short condition is satisfied based on a change in a voltage in a wire harness coupled to a first side of a switch. The determination of whether a short exists is made in response to determining whether the short condition has been satisfied for at least a threshold time. The threshold time is dependent on a change in a voltage of the wire harness coupled to a second side of the switch.